Category: Normalization of Hate

President Donald Trump‘s rally in Fort Wayne, IN was interrupted by protesters earlier tonight.

After the first protester showed up, Trump went on an extended riff about the cameras in the room and how they “turned like a pretzel,” launching into his usual schtick about how the networks never cut away to show the size of his crowds.

But then, a few minutes later, another protester interrupted.

This time, Trump called out, “Out! Out! Go home to mommy! Go home to mommy.”

And he riffed on the cameras once again. Trump also referred to the protester as “a weak person with a weak voice.”

There was even a third protester who interrupted after Trump brought Mike Braun up to speak.

President Trump on Monday responded to critics calling his controversial anti-immigration ad “offensive” by saying “a lot of things are offensive.”

A reporter asked Trump about the widespread controversy over the ad, which NBC and Fox pulled from the airwaves on Monday.

“I don’t know about it,” Trump said. “We have a lot of ads. And they certainly are effective, based on the numbers that we’re seeing.”

“A lot of things are offensive,” the president told a reporter pressing him over the ad. “Your questions are offensive a lot of times so, you know.”

The ad, paid for by the Trump campaign, links the so-called migrant caravan heading towards the southern border with Luis Bracamontes, a man convicted of killing two U.S. police officers. It accuses Democrats of seeking to bring people like Bracamontes into the U.S., particularly through the caravan.

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave Trump “four Pinocchios” for claiming in the ad that Democrats brought Bracamontes back into the country. A review of court records by the Post reveals his case was handled primarily by Republicans.

CNN over the weekend said the ad is “racist,” saying the network declined the opportunity to be paid to air the ad.

The ad comes as Trump has leaned into immigration as an issue to stoke his base ahead of Tuesday’s elections.

He ended the tweet by touting the country’s impressive economic growth.

So funny to see the CNN Fake Suppression Polls and false rhetoric. Watch for real results Tuesday. We are lucky CNN’s ratings are so low. Don’t fall for the Suppression Game. Go out & VOTE. Remember, we now have perhaps the greatest Economy (JOBS) in the history of our Country!

Trump’s tweet came hours after a new CNN poll showed Democrats continuing to hold a double-digit lead over Republicans in a generic congressional ballot among likely voters.

The poll also found Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent overall, with a 55 percent of those polled disapproving of his job performance. That is the worst pre-election approval rating for any president ahead of their first midterm election, CNN reported.

A Harvard-Harris poll released last week found Trump’s approval rating at 44 percent among registered voters and 46 percent among likely voters.

Thirty-three percent of registered voters in the poll said their midterm election votes will be a signal of support for Trump while 40 percent said it will be a signal of opposition to the president. Twenty-seven percent said they are not voting according to their disposition on Trump.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in late October found Trump’s approval rating ahead of the midterm elections at a higher level than former President Obama’s ahead of the 2010 midterms.

The poll found Trump’s approval rating at its highest level for that poll yet, at 47 percent. Obama’s approval rating was at 45 percent around the same time in 2010, according to a similar NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken in late October 2010.

The new CNN poll surveyed 1,151 likely voters between Nov. 1-3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Most polls have Democrats at an advantage on generic congressional ballots and the party is widely expected to win back the House on Tuesday.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter and the mail bomber who sent packages to CNN and Democratic targets stopped his “incredible” midterm momentum.

“Now, we did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible. Because for 7 days, nobody talked about the elections. It stopped a tremendous momentum.” Trump said, before adding, “More importantly, we have to take care of our people, and we don’t care about momentum when it comes to a disgrace like just happened to the country, but it did nevertheless stop a certain momentum.”

During an address on immigration from the White House on Thursday, President Donald Trump took questions from the press.

At one point, in response to a question from a reporter about if he would foresee a situation where the military may fire on the Central American migrants making their way to the border, he said that the United States military will consider a rock held in the hands of migrants the same as a firearm.

“I will tell you this, anybodythrowing stones, rocks, likethey did to Mexico and theMexican military, Mexicanpolice, where they badly hurtpolice and soldiers of Mexico,we will consider that a firearm,” Trump said. “Because there’s not muchdifference.When you get hit in the facewith a rock, which as you know,that was very violent a few days ago.Very, very violent.”

Then a little while later he doubled down, saying that he considers a rock like a rifle: “They’re throwing rocks,viciously, and violently.You saw that three days ago.Really hurting the military.We’re not going to put up withthat.They want to throw rocks at ourmilitary, our military fightsback.We’re gonna consider, and I told themconsider it a rifle.When they throw rocks like theydid at the Mexico military and police, I say consider it arifle.”

Just one week ago, in an interview with Fox News, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen downplayed the possibility of the US military opening fire on the migrants, saying, “We do not have any intention right now to shoot at people…They will be apprehended, however.”

In the most racially charged national political ad in 30 years, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party accuse Democrats of plotting to help people they depict as Central American invaders overrun the nation with cop killers.

The new web video, tweeted by the President five days before the midterm elections, is the most extreme step yet in the most inflammatory closing argument of any campaign in recent memory.

The Trump campaign ad is the latest example of the President’s willingness to lie and fear-monger in order to tear at racial and societal divides; to embrace demagoguery to bolster his own political power and the cause of the Republican midterm campaign.

The web video — produced for the Trump campaign — features Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican man who had previously been deported but returned to the United States and was convicted in February in the slaying of two California deputies.

“I’m going to kill more cops soon,” a grinning Bracamontes is shown saying in court as captions flash across the screen reading “Democrats let him into our country. Democrats let him stay.”

The ad recalls the notorious “Willie Horton” campaign ad financed by supporters of the George H.W. Bush campaign in the 1988 presidential election. Horton was a convicted murderer who committed rape while furloughed under a program in Massachusetts where Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis was governor.

The ad has since come to be seen as one of the most racially problematic in modern political history since it played into white fear and African-American stereotypes. It was regarded at the time as devastating to the Dukakis campaign.

Trump’s web video, while just as shocking as the Horton spot, carries added weight since, unlike its 1988 predecessor, it bears the official endorsement of the leader of the Republican Party — Trump — and is not an outside effort. Given that Trump distributed it from his Twitter account, It also comes with all the symbolic significance of the presidency itself.

In a first reaction, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said the ad was a sign of desperation and suggested that Trump was losing the argument over health care that is at the center of the Democratic campaign.

“This is distracting, divisive Donald at his worst,” Perez said on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time.”

“This is fear mongering. … They have to fear monger and his dog whistle of all dog whistles is immigration. This has been Donald Trump’s playbook for so long.”

In a newly-released portion of Axios’ interview with Donald Trump, the president once again defended his anti-media rhetoric while brushing off the idea that someone will eventually get hurt because of it.

After asking Trump about his idea to roll back birthright citizenship, Jim VandeHei used multiple points of the interview to question Trump over the implications of calling the press the “enemy of the people.” VandeHei noted that Trump has a major platform between his rallies and his status as president, so he said “there’s got to be a part of you that’s like: ‘Dammit, I’m scared that someone is gonna take it too far.’”

“I think I’m doing a service [by attacking the press] when people write stories about me that are so wrong,” Trump responded. “I know what I do good and what I do bad. I really get it, OK? I really get it better than anybody in the whole world.”

Trump’s remarks come after CNN – one of his favorite media punching bags – was targeted by multiple bomb threats that came through the mail in recent days. These IED packages were allegedly sent by one of the president’s supporters who was arrested last week on suspicion of being the perpetrator for the attempted mail bombing campaign.

Trump continues to bash the media and various critics who were targeted by the recent threats, and judging by his remarks to Axios, he feels no responsibility for how supporters of his may react to his riling them up against the press.

“It’s my only form of fighting back,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t do that.”

The conspiracy theory — which apparently dates back to March — may also have contributed to the synagogue slayings in Pittsburgh.

Standing on the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump gave no further indication about why he would “not be surprised” that Soros was involved, although blaming Soros has proven popular among Trump’s base.

Earlier today, Trump said that there was only a “small protest” in Pittsburgh, something the Washington Post and other outlets noted was not quite accurate.

Yet speaking of the visit at the rally, Trump doubled down.

“Yesterday’s visit to Pittsburgh was about coming together as a nation to comfort and to heal,” Trump began.

Then, venting against the media, the President of the United States said this: “After this day of unity and togetherness, I came home and sadly turned on the news and watched as the far left media once again used tragedy to sow anger and division.”

The crowd booed at the mention of the media.

“Sadly, they took a small group of protesters, far away from where we were because we could not have been treated better,” Trump continued on. “The first lady and myself, but we’re representing the presidency, and they did everything in their power to try to play it up and push people apart. That’s what’s happening.”

The crowd booed again.

“It was fake, and it was make-believe what they said. I came home, looked forward to seeing it, and it was sad,” Trump further opined. “When we talk about division, this is a big part of the division, right there. The far left media has spread terrible lies and stories about the Trump Administration and the tens of millions of people who make up our great movement, the greatest political movement in the history of our country.”

Once again President Donald Trump used the line “enemy of the people” to attack the “fake news” at his Florida rally tonight.

Trump opened by talking about his visit to Pittsburgh and bashing the media for critical coverage of the visit.

He moved on and talked about the great “movement” of his supporters, but as he listed successes of his administration, he went back to attacking the press:

“We have forcefully condemned hatred, bigotry, racism, and prejudice in all of its ugly forms, but the media doesn’t want you to hear your story. It’s not my story, it’s your story. And that’s why 33 percent of the people in this country believe the fake news is, in fact––and I hate to say this––in fact, the enemy of the people.”